Lost in Translation: Introduction

Looking forward to the report, especially the sightseeing in Japan - I appreciate you taking time to talk about your destinations more and share what you did. Oh, and the flight stuff is cool too :). May I ask why the complete switch to AA? Thought you were all gung ho for UA the last few years. If it was covered in a previous post just point me to it.

Ohh Japan and Engrish. Where was this sign taken at? My friend will be arriving there this week, maybe I can get her to take the picture for me too. How easy is the immigration process?

@Lucky: What is your view of the after affects of the Fukushima meltdown? You don't seem to mention it in any of the posts I've ever read. I was curious if it ever enters into your mind or not.

@Zeke: How easy compared to what? So long as you don't have any drug convictions you should be fine. However, even a relatively minor marijuana possession charge can result in a lifetime ban from a zero-tolerance country like Japan. Same thing for carrying something as benign as the original Sudafed. If you are traveling through Japan over a short stay to/from a country the Japanese government associates with drug smuggling you may be required to submit to a far more invasive (but extremely polite) search of your belongings. So long as they don't find anything you'll be on your way soon enough. At one time Japan was THE gateway to Asia for folks traveling from North America, but these days a lot of that traffic has moved elsewhere.

Japanese is a SOV (subject-object-verb) language. English is SVO. Hence, the output is some sort of SOV "English".

@ JeffISU -- American has treated me pretty well, and seeing what a mess the United merger has been I can't say I miss them.

@ Zeke -- It was taken at Nagoya Castle. Immigration is easy, though the queues can be long during peak times, since there are tons of international flights arriving early morning and late afternoon.

@ Dax -- To be perfectly honest it didn't even cross my mind. I realize it was catastrophic, though everything I've seen suggests it's safe to return to Japan, and I certainly hate seeing how negatively the country was affected not only by the meltdown, but by the huge decrease in tourism.

"However, even a relatively minor marijuana possession charge can result in a lifetime ban from a zero-tolerance country like Japan. "

I always find it funny when people expect other countries to have the same laws or tolerances as the USA. You make your choices and live with the consequences, no?

Was hoping you'd fly a segment on ANA, just to see their new First Class product, and compare it to JLA...

Lucky--have you had issues using orbitz or expedia to book complicated routings where the routing was messed up and the airline wouldn't deal direct with you, but make you go through the booking source? That's been one of my hangups with using those sites...if a cancel or delay causes re-routing, I've heard of some horror stories getting the airlines to deal directly with you and not go through expedia or such to make changes.

Hoping your TR will include some info on the transfer between LGA and JFK, including how much time is best to leave for it, cost, ease, etc. Thanks!

@Dax
Your personal vendetta against Japan notwithstanding, the vast majority of travelers do not have to worry about the issues you (exaggeratedly) describe.

Also I suspect the rise of other Asian cities as travel hubs has an awful lot more to do with economic growth than drug/immigration policy as you imply....

@Stephan: Which country would you prefer I compare Japan to on a US-centric site with a US-based author detailing ex-US travel?

@Chas: Which part of my post is not an accurate portrayal of actual Japanese policy?

@ Brady -- It's definitely a pain and a good reason to book directly with the airline. In this instance I didn't have much of a choice since aa.com wasn't pricing the ticket for me, so it was a risk I had to live with. But usually I agree, it's a reason to stick directly with the airline. Working through schedule changes with third party bookings isn't impossible, but it certainly complicates things.

@ Rebecca D. -- I'll include it, though I can say right now we took a cab which took about 30 minutes with REALLY bad traffic and cost about $25.

Can you also include train costs/experiences in Japan?

It seems you do a lot of travelling between the States and Asia. Do you find the value for points on these routes greater than, say flights to Europe or South America?

@ Panda -- Will do!

@ Tyler A -- Everything goes further in Asia. Award tickets are typically priced the same to Asia as Europe even though it's often double as far, and in Southeast Asia everything is so cheap compared to Europe. Of course Japan and South Korea are huge exceptions as they're very expensive, but other than that...

Lucky, have you flown or reviewed Aeromexico? Have you or would you consider them for any long haul flight to Europe or Asia? Just curious. Not too many reviews for them out there. I have always enjoyed their product.

@ Alejandro -- I haven't, though I'm actually hoping to fly them soon (ideally to South America using SkyMiles, as outlined here: https://onemileatatime.com/using-delta-skymiles-for-travel-to-south-america-on-aeromexico/).

Hi Lucky,

You mentioned that you booked via Orbitz? Were you concerned about Orbitz customer service if AA did a schedule change? Since you'd have to take up the schedule changes (and potential re-routing) with Orbitz rather than with AA directly?

-Warren